It is with sadness that OOTA recognises the death of Trisha Kotai-Ewers (OAM) on 17 January 2021. Trisha was an author, mentor and friend to many during her long involvement with OOTA and the Fellowship of Australian Writers WA (FAWWA) and writing communities more broadly.

Trisha Kotai-Ewers always loved words. She taught languages in Western Australian schools for over 20 years, was President of FAWWA for 17 years and has a PhD in social and cultural history. Trisha founded the Centre for the Creative Imagination in Perth and has given papers on her work at national and international conferences. In 2007 Alzheimer’s WA published her book Listen to the Talk of Us: People with dementia speak out.

She also held tenaciously to the history of writing in Western Australia and fought hard for the recognition of its writers. In her dealings with OOTA, Trisha was always inspiring, supportive and gracious.

Trisha's daughters Haede, Kate and Clara, have posted a tribute on her Facebook page (Trisha Kotai-Ewers). Condolences may be left there. The funeral will be held at Karrakatta Cemetery on Wednesday 3rd February starting at 10.30am, followed by a Wake at Mattie Furphy House, corner Kirkwood Ave and Clare Copse, Swanbourne.

Trisha’s poem, ‘A circle within a circle’ was published in OOTA’s Anthology Locus, in 2019. It seems a fitting acknowledgement of the circles of life and our remembering of her.

A CIRCLE WITHIN A CIRCLE

Trisha Kotai-Ewers

The drop of dew on a nasturtium leaf

rolls softly into the centre

a circle within a circle.

I always envied my friend her nasturtiums.

Each year the backyard

under the mulberry tree was festooned

with romping colour.

We made sandwiches with the leaves,

lay among their tart green-ness

and picked the riotous colours

of flowers that clamour to adorn

the artist’s palette and Art Nouveau designs.

Nasturtiums were banned from my father’s garden.

Not because of their colour.

He planted orange and red zinnias in summer

and purple cinerarias in winter.

But being by nature uncontrollable

nasturtiums refuse to be confined

into neat rows

marching behind their Yates seed packet.

Nasturtiums must be allowed to roam,

to expand and explore.

They are unruly plants.

But the drop of dew in the centre of the leaf

the circle within a circle

creates a still point in all this abandon,

reflects the sky and quietens the soul.